Through My Bible Yr 2 – January 12

²⁴ This is what the Lord, your Redeemer,
the Lord who formed you from the womb, says.
    I am the Lord, the one who does all things,
    who stretched out the heavens by myself,
    who hammered out the earth.
    (Who was with me then?)
²⁵     I frustrate the signs of the deceivers
    and make fools of the fortune tellers. ^{²⁶ He is the one who fulfills the word of his servants,}
who completes the plan announced by his messengers,
who says about Jerusalem, “It will be inhabited,”
and about the cities of Judah, “They will be rebuilt,
and I will raise up their ruins.”
²⁷ He is the one who says to the deep ocean, “Dry up,”
the one who says, “I will dry up your rivers.”
²⁸ He is the one who says about Cyrus, “He is my shepherd,
and he will complete everything I desire.”
He is the one who says about Jerusalem, “It will be rebuilt,”
and who says to the temple, “Your foundations will be laid.”

¹ This is what the Lord says to his anointed one,
to Cyrus, whose right hand I have grasped,
    to subdue nations before him
    by stripping kings of their weapons,
    to open doors before him
    so that the gates cannot be shut.

²     I myself will go before you,
    and I will level high mountains. ^{³     I will give you treasures hidden in darkness}
    and riches concealed in secret places,
    so that you will acknowledge that I am the Lord,
    the one who calls you by name, the God of Israel.
⁴     For the sake of my servant Jacob,
    for the sake of Israel my chosen one,
    I will call you by your name.
    I will give you an honored name, though you do not know me.
⁵     I am the Lord, and there is no other.
    Except for me, there is no god.
    I will equip you even though you do not know me,
⁶     so that people will know from the rising of the sun
            to the place where it sets
        that there is no one except me.
    I am the Lord, and there is no other.
⁷     I am the one who forms light and creates darkness,
    the one who makes peace and creates disaster.
    I am the Lord, the one who does all these things.

⁸ Shower down, you heavens, from above,
and let the clouds rain down righteousness.
Let the earth open up,
so that salvation will produce fruit.
Let righteousness sprout up along with it.
I, the Lord, am creating this.

⁹ Woe to anyone who argues against the potter who formed him.
He is just a potsherd among the broken pieces of pottery on the ground.
Does clay say to its potter, “What are you making?
Your work looks like something made by a potter with no hands”?
¹⁰ Woe to anyone who says to his father, “What have you fathered?”
or to a woman, “What are you giving birth to?”

¹¹ This is what the Lord says,
the Holy One of Israel, who formed Israel.
    Do you wish to question me concerning things to come?
    Will you give me orders about my children
    and about the work of my hands?
¹²     I myself made the earth,
    and I created Adam ^{Cyrus as the Lord’s Servant}

The Hidden God Is Revealed